Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Preview

March 5, 2013

Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm is just around the corner. Get all the details on the story, multiplayer, and gameplay.

Story

Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm takes place right after the events of Wings of Liberty. This time around you’ll be playing as Kerrigan on a hunt to regain control of the swarm. Along the way you’ll have to deal with other brood mothers, dominion forces, Protoss, and of course the coming apocalypse. Along the way Kerrigan will have to cope with the sins of her past and cope with the legions of enemies out for her head.

During the story we know that Kerrigan will not only be battling Terran and Protoss forces, but other Zerg swarms as well. Creatures called Brood Mothers are rising up to try and usurp power from Kerrigan and she must defend her place and regain control of the broods . Along the way you will also conquer planets and wreck havoc on your enemies.

Gameplay

The Starcraft gameplay we love returns with some fancy features to make the Zerg campaign more entertaining and believable. Wings of Liberty had an upgrade system that allowed you to make your units more powerful over the course of the campaign and even giving them new abilities. This mechanic returns in Heart of the Swarm except that it is a little different. The system is now called Mutations and it allows your Zerg minions to gaining powerups and ultimately evolve into different units. The evolutions will split off into two very different units, each of which has different abilities. For example evolving your Zerglings into Raptors will allow them to jump up and down levels as well as move faster.

Another mechanic for upgrading the swarm involves destroying planets. You will be able to take over and siphon power from various planets must like the swarm would do within the confines of the story. Each planet has a specific upgrade to claim and each planet will be a unique side mission.

In Wings of Liberty there were many things like the jukebox and TV in order to give you a sense of the world. In Heart of the Swarm those things wouldn’t really make much sense, so Blizzard threw in some other objects to interact with in order to make the world more believable.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer is receiving some new units and changes as well. For all of you balance purists out there don’t fret; Heart of the Swarm ads new units for all three races and they are all available in multiplayer. Blizzard also includes a new training mode for people who are new to Starcraft 2 multiplayer and teaches them how to overcome specific challenges for each of the three races. Heart of the Swarm also comes packed with a few new multiplayer maps to keep you occupied longer and practice new strategies.

Heart of the Swarm also ads group support, clans and other groups will be able to get together easily in order to play together. Multiplayer is also getting a leveling system that lets you gain experience after every match played. This experience helps you unlock portraits, unit skins, dance animations, and more.

Overall

Starcraft 2 Heart of the Swarm looks like it’s going to be a pretty beefy expansion, check out our review when it goes up next week right here on VGU.TV

Author

Joshua Mobley is a hardcore gamer, Parappa the Rapper enthusiast, and coffee addict. You can follow him on Twitter @pacpunk. he also writes a number of Tumblr Blogs: Coffee and Controllers, SpookyMobleys Conspiracy Corner, and Pixel Power Art. He’s also the host of the VGU GamerCast.